Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 11:56:16 AM EST

Good for Geithner, and good for the White House not letting the Republicans try to bully them, as is their wont. The fact is, the overwhelming majority of the American people believe that the rich should pay higher rates as part of a balanced, deficit-reduction package. If Republicans are so beholden to intransigent, anti-tax/anti-government extremists like Grover Norquist that they won't compromise, then we will all know exactly who to blame - and to vote out of office in 2014 - if we end up with no deal on January 1, 2013.

Thank you to Keith Ellison for saying what I've been saying for a long time now, that "You didn't see all this partisan bickering [after the 1983 attack on the Marines barracks in Beirut]...We came together and said that this was a national tragedy. Blame was not parceled out the way it is now."

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who has refused to support raising marginal tax rates on the richest Americans in order to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, told Fox News Sunday that it doesn't matter if the government raises revenue by reducing programs or eliminating tax deductions that also benefit lower and middle class Americans or asks the wealthiest to pay more..."Listen, what is this difference where the money comes from?"

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